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Oops! is a web site dedicated to discovering the absent and wandering mind and some of its consequences.

In this site we provide examples, often entertaining, of mind-wandering and its consequences, some essays on inattention, and an opportunity to contribute to our understanding of the causes and consequences of mind-wandering.

The Daily Oops!

One day Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was dismayed to find that an important volume had gone missing from his library. In a fit, he interrogated his secretary, butler, and servants before heading off to the Supreme Court. His wife, Fanny, simply held her tongue.When he returned home, he amused to find the book in its place on the shelf, and above it a neatly printed sign, courtesy of Fanny:"I am a very old man. I have had many troubles, most of which never happened."

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Wandering in Both Mind and Body: Individual Differ...

Anecdotal reports suggest that during periods of inattention or mind wandering, people tend to experience increased fidgeting. In four studies, we examined whether individual differences in the tendency to be inattentive and to mind wander in everyday life are related to the tendency to make spontaneous and involuntary movements...
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Age differences in attention lapses mask age diffe...

Although objective measures of memory performance typically indicate memory declines with age, self-reported memory failures often show no relation to age. In contrast, self-reported attention failures are reliably negatively correlated with age. This contrast suggests...
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Attention failures versus misplaced diligence: Sep...

In two studies of a GO–NOGO task assessing sustained attention, we examined the effects of (1) altering speed–accuracy trade-offs through instructions (emphasizing both speed and accuracy or accuracy only) and (2) auditory alerts distributed throughout the task...
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